Diseases's posts - Finnish uPOST

The year 2016 has been an ice cream sundae of realized horrors, topped off by a human that actually looks like a cherry if that cherry was radioactive and run over by a convertible. A lot of fears that used to feel outlandish suddenly seem pretty plausible: apocalyptic climate change, nuclear war, fascism, close-up…

I was in the kitchen rummaging around for a snack last night when I heard the NY1 anchor interrupt his broadcast with a News Alert that New York City's Dr. Craig Spencer had tested positive for the Ebola virus. And then I did what anybody alone in an apartment with Ebola news sans context and restraint would do: I…

Every year, freshman at Stanford University, their high school nerdstink still clinging to their strategically selected college reinvention outfits, gather on a quad to be ushered into the prestigious school's community by polite, consent-seeking upperclassmen. You'd think the tradition — known colloquially as the…

Miley Cyrus may have claimed she's disavowed Twerking in her latest interview with Rolling Stone, but she's way into something that could turn out to be much more dangerous: licking things. She's licking a hammer and a rusty chain in the Wrecking Ball video. She's licking teddy bears onstage at the VMA's. She's…

The bubonic plague, which helped build most of 14th century Europe's character, probably wiped out Constantinople in 542, and is the primary antagonist in both a pretty sweet novel about New Orleans called A Recent Martyr by Valerie Martin as well as a pretty sweet movie about New Orleans called Panic in the Streets,…

Just when it seemed like all the super scary diseases had been discovered—flesh-eating bacteria, brain tapeworms, and, of course, HIV/AIDS, among many others—a new one comes along to bring fresh terror into our hearts. Introducing Chagas disease, which is caused by parasites that get into our bodies by way of…

As a thirty-something, I spent my teen years being inundated with warnings about HIV, condom PSAs, sad news of AIDS-related deaths and a general paranoia that sex was potentially deadly. Now, in terrible news, Hepatitis C is now killing more Americans than HIV. According to the Scientific American:

Dolphin therapy programs claim that swimming with the sea mammals can cure conditions from chronic fatigue syndrome to autism. However, aside from a few small studies suggesting that dolphin fun may help with depression and, oddly, eczema, there's no evidence for these claims. Also, as much as dolphins may like…

Did you know that spending too much time looking down at your Blackberry is going to give your neck unsightly wrinkles? It's true! It's called Blackberry Neck. Says who? The lady who came up with the treatment for it. [Gawker]

A quarter of gonorrhea strains in the US are now resistant to common antibiotics, and some are even resistant to the newer drugs that are doctors' last resort. If gonorrhea can't be treated with drugs, it can spread to your blood and joints and then kill you. So basically, never have sex again, and if possible, just…

Apparently, the fatter women get, the harder it is for them to conceive. Funny, it used to be the more underweight a woman was, the harder it was to get pregnant. But Nicole Richie, who just weighed in at a buck o' five, sure turned that nonsense on its head! [The Guardian]